April

April 28, 2008 — It’s long been known that patients with sickle cell disease have malformed, “sickle-shaped” red blood cells – which are normally disc-shaped – that can cause sudden painful episodes when they block small blood vessels.

April 25, 2008 — Dr. H. Shelton Earp, professor of pharmacology and medicine, Lineberger Professor of Cancer Research and director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been honored by his peers with the 2008 Thomas Jefferson Award.

April 24, 2008 — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded a training fellowship from the Gilead Foundation to provide doctors from the African nation of Malawi with postdoctoral training in internal medicine.

April 23, 2008 — Robert C. Cefalo, MD, PhD, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology in the UNC School of Medicine and director of the medical residency and fellowship programs at UNC Hospitals for 25 years, died April 22 at the age of 74.

April 23, 2008 — Researchers at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered new targets for cancer treatment aimed at blocking a key step in tumor progression.

April 22, 2008 — David Kittner, an attorney in Philadelphia and an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Samuel and Rebecca Kardon Foundation have given $1 million to establish an endowed innovation fund for the future of the UNC School of Medicine’s department of ophthalmology.

April 22, 2008 — Sixty-five percent of American women between the ages of 25 and 45 report having disordered eating behaviors, according to the results of a new survey by SELF Magazine in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

April 21, 2008 — People with scalp or neck melanomas die at nearly twice the rate of people with melanoma elsewhere on the body, including the face or ears, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found.

April 18, 2008 — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences have signed a memorandum of understanding that will guide innovative collaborations in basic and translational research.

April 8, 2008 — A Carrboro-based health clinic run by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students – the oldest such operation in the United States – is marking 40 years of service with a birthday party at the Carrboro Arts Center this Sunday (April 13).

April 8, 2008 — Dr. Bryan L. Roth, a professor of pharmacology in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, has been recognized with a prestigious award given to researchers of brain and psychiatric disorders who have established themselves as leaders in their fields.

April 7, 2008 — Nobel Prize co- recipient Dr. Oliver Smithies will give a free public talk about “Reflections on a Lifetime of Science” at UNC’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

April 4, 2008 — In 2006, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers published a study that found people with low levels of LDL cholesterol are more likely to have Parkinson's disease than people with high LDL levels.